The British women on the podium after winning the team pursuit world championship.

(Mark Gunter)

Yes the British women were happy to win.

(Mark Gunter)

The well drilled Germans

(Mark Gunter)

The Canadian team was impressive

(Mark Gunter)

The Australian team drilled their qualifying heat

(Mark Gunter)

The Australian's celebrations were short-lived

(Mark Gunter)

The New Zealander's en-route to their bronze medal ride-off

(Mark Gunter)

Sarah Hammer leads out the US team

(Mark Gunter)

A close fight for the rainbow jersey in the women's team pursuit was expected, and that's exactly what the crowd at Melbourne's Hisense Arena got with the two teams which broke the existing world record in qualifying, Great Britain and Australia, pushing each other all the way until the visitors prevailed.

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Great Britain - Danielle King, Joanna Rowsell, and Laura Trott - again set a new world mark in the 12-lap event of 13:15.720, bettering their time from earlier in the afternoon (3:16.850), as Australia was forced to settle for silver (3:16.943) with a new PB.

The final mirrored the team's performances in qualifying, with Australia going out hard early, so much so that they were running ahead of their schedule. Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic had quickly built an advantage of just over one second by lap four. The Australians lead over their opponents maxed out on lap five (01.48) and gradually fell away until Great Britain took a slender, two-tenths of a second lead on lap 10.

Great Britain motored home, to win by 01.223.

Roswell said that she and her teammates were never perturbed by the Australian tactics.

"The Australians went out fast, but we stuck to our plan to go out steady and hold pace," she explained.

Both teams have been spurred on in recent times by internal competition for places within the team, Roswell one rider who fought her way back after missing out on a place within the line-up which won the rainbow jersey last year in Apeldoorn, after being part of the winning teams in 2008 and 2009.

For the Australian team, Ashlee Ankudinoff and Sarah Kent were both involved in a tough tussle to claim a spot in the current line-up but were unsuccessful with 20-year-old newcomer Edmondson holding her place.

Roswell went on to explain that the internal rivalries should only spur faster times.

"The event as whole is still developing and we're seeing faster and faster times every time it's ridden at international level," she said. "I don't think the absolute limit's quite been found yet. We did 3:15 and I'm definitely sure we can go faster than that again.

"All the countries are going to keep pushing each other," Rowsell continued. "Australia was such good competition ... we'll see come the Olympics, but I think we're going to see some faster times."

In the bronze medal ride-off, Canada produced a comprehensive victory over New Zealand.

Qualifying report:

The world mark, held by Great Britain since the London World Cup in February, was lowered twice in less than 10 minutes in qualifying for the women's team pursuit on Thursday afternoon.

Australia, with Annette Edmondson, Melissa Hoskins and Josephine Tomic first knocked 1.095 off the time before Great Britain, last team out of the gate in qualifying, took aim.

Although trailing the new mark for over half of the three kilometre, 12 lap event, Danielle King, Joanna Rowsell, and Laura Trott powered home to clock 3:16.850 to set up a thrilling gold medal match up during the evening session.